A chunk of precon condos – 1990s all over again. Greed be greedy.

My point and concern is that these practices likely only delay the inevitable for the majority of their distressed accounts, at the enormous expense of a weakening of the strength of Canadian banking system, and at the devastating expense of artificially propping up the housing market by keeping inventory artificially low, thus continuing to deny millions of Canadians a home to own and live in.

My point and concern is that these practices likely only delay the inevitable for the majority of their distressed accounts, at the enormous expense of a weaking of the strength of Canadian banking system, and at the devastating expense of artificially propping up the housing market by keeping inventory artificially low, thus continuing to deny millions of Canadians the opportunity to buy a home – to actually live in.

Let loans default naturally, targeting first loans for non-primary residences.

The solution to bring home prices back down to earth seems obvious: In BC, apply the Property Transfer Tax as originally intended to discourage speculation and property investment in the market: Apply it to non-primary residence purchases only, and raise the tax to the point it discourages speculation and investors, local or foreign.

Bring in a one-time speculation tax to target all current non-primary residence owners. This would trigger a near-instantaneous flood of listings, thus bringing prices back down to reality.

The BC government has the tools to make homes affordable again, overnight, with the stroke of a pen. What is missing is the political will. High time they are held to account.